SAN FRANCISCO , California -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Imagine collecting thousands of empty plastic bottles , lashing them together to make a boat and sailing the thing from California to Australia , a journey of 11,000 miles -LRB- 17,700 km -RRB- through treacherous seas .

This 60-foot sailboat , the Plastiki , is being built from more than 12,000 recycled plastic bottles .

You 'd have to be crazy , or trying to make a point . David de Rothschild is trying to make a point .

De Rothschild hopes his one-of-a-kind vessel , now being built on a San Francisco pier , will boost recycling of plastic bottles , which he says are a symbol of global waste . Except for the masts , which are metal , everything on the 60-foot catamaran is made from recycled plastic .

`` It 's all sail power , '' he said . `` The idea is to put no kind of pollution back into the atmosphere , or into our oceans for that matter , so everything on the boat will be composted . Everything will be recycled . Even the vessel is going to end up being recycled when we finish . ''

De Rothschild 's vessel , scheduled to set sail from San Francisco in April , is called the Plastiki . Its name is an homage of sorts to Thor Heyerdahl , the fabled Norwegian explorer who in 1947 sailed 4,300 miles across the Pacific on the Kon-Tiki , a raft made from balsa wood .

De Rothschild is something of an adventurer himself . The scion of a wealthy British banking family , he is one of only several dozen people to traverse both the Arctic and Antarctic ice caps . In 2005 he founded Adventure Ecology , an organization that uses field expeditions to call attention to environmental issues . Watch how the boat is constructed ''

Joining him on the Plastiki will be a permanent crew of three sailors and scientists plus a handful of other crew members who will rotate through the voyage . The Plastiki is expected to stop in Hawaii , Tuvalu and Fiji on its way to Sydney , a trip estimated to take more than 100 days .

The plastic sailboat is taking shape in an old pier building not far from this city 's famous Fisherman 's Wharf . Here , thousands of two-liter soda bottles are being stripped of their labels , washed , filled with dry-ice powder and then resealed . The dry ice sublimates into carbon dioxide gas and pressurizes the bottle , making it rigid .

The vessel 's twin hulls will be filled with 12,000 to 16,000 bottles . Skin-like panels made from recycled PET , a woven plastic fabric , will cover the hulls and a watertight cabin , which sleeps four .

`` This actually is the same material that is made out of bottles , '' said de Rothschild of the PET fabric . `` We actually wrap the PET fabric over the PET foam and then basically put it under a vacuum , heat it , press it and create these long PET panels . So that means the boat is , technically , one giant bottle . ''

Two wind turbines and an array of solar panels will charge a bank of 12-volt batteries , which will power several onboard laptop computers , a GPS and SAT phone .

Only about 10 percent of the Plastiki will be made from new materials , de Rothschild said . He declined to reveal how much it 's costing him to build the boat .

`` We could potentially put together a boat that costs a fraction of what normal conventional boats are made of , '' he said . `` The idea is to take the Plastiki , break it down -LSB- after the voyage -RSB- , and put it back into the system . So , it may come out being a jacket , a bag , more bottles . It 's infinitely recyclable . ''

The ultimate goal of the Plastiki voyage is not just to encourage people to embrace clean , renewable energy but also to see consumer waste as a potential resource .

That 's what this is all about -- showcasing cradle-to-cradle products rather than cradle-to-grave , '' de Rothschild said .

Whether the Plastiki will successfully complete its unique journey remains to be seen . But to conservationists concerned about the amount of energy required to manufacture and distribute plastic bottles , its symbolic message is a welcome one .

`` Anything that gets in the news and makes people stop and think about plastic can be very helpful , '' said Betty McLaughlin , executive director of the Container Recycling Institute .

`` But it strikes me as a long way to go . I flew from Los Angeles to Australia once , and it took forever . This trip strikes me as kind of dangerous . ''

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An adventurer is building a sailboat out of thousands of recycled plastic soda bottles

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He plans to sail it this spring from California to Australia , a journey of 11,000 miles

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Expedition leader is David de Rothschild , scion of a wealthy British banking family

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Boat , the Plastiki , will be a symbol of how consumer waste can be repurposed